Coombe Trenchard's Top Tips for Wedding Planning Joy

The New Year heralds a fresh wave of excitement for our 2017 brides, this is *the* year and with it the to-do list grows longer and thoughts turn increasingly to time frames and making sure all wedmin tasks are completed in time for the Big Day.

Ensuring optimum enjoyment throughout this process should be the goal, it is a completely unique time in your life and story as a couple and something you will look back on fondly in years to come. It is also a time that can feel pressurised and stressful, so we thought we’d give you all a New Year reminder on how to manage that wedding task list, and more importantly have fun doing it!

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Freckle Photography

1. Involve those you love

This is such a huge one. Plan ‘wedding dates’ with your fiancé and sit down to make decisions at your favourite restaurant, or construct wedding signage whilst listening to your favourite album together. Look upon the whole process as memory-making gold, not just the wedding day itself. Take your parents to meetings and involve them, ask siblings to help you shop for last minute decorations or get the whole family round to become a production line for your favours. Those close to you will be incredibly excited for your nuptials and letting them be involved benefits everyone. Delegation is key; make the most of the people in your life and enjoy having an excuse to spend more time together.

2. Write it down

Sometimes all of those light bulb moments, forgotten emails and vague ideas of bouquets can make your head a frantic place to be. Invest in some lovely new stationery and ensure you keep a track of your thoughts and tasks to complete in an organised and clear way. Set aside an evening to go through your emails and to-do lists and streamline them into something legible and straightforward, you’ll feel happier seeing everything written down and ready to get ticked off. Pop a notepad in your bag and jot down thoughts or ideas as you have them, its best to get pen to paper for ultimate calmness.
 

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3. Approach Things Logically and Realistically

From these lists you can work methodically and logically through the wedmin. Be realistic about what you can achieve and when, if you won’t have time then put it to one side or re-arrange other tasks. Over-stretching yourself will not lead to bridal bliss or a relaxed wedding day. There are an infinite amount of components to a wedding, so it’s best to prioritise which key elements are important to you and your partner. Set yourself goals and break down the large amount of things to sort out into manageable chunks, tackling one at a time until it is ticked off.

 

4. Enjoy The Freedom and Have Fun With It

Instead of feeling pressure to conform to certain aspects of a wedding, energise and inspire yourself with the knowledge that your day can be whatever you want it to be. Think back over your relationship and tie in special memories and places, project your personalities and have fun with the details that will make your wedding unique to you and your fiancé.

 

5.Ask for Help if You Need It

Realise when you need some advice or help and don’t be shy to ask for it! Here at Coombe Trenchard, we love to be involved every step of your planning journey and can advise on suppliers, use of our space and most things to do with wedding preparation (we have been involved in quite a few after all!). Reach out and be rewarded with peace of mind, whether from ourselves, suppliers, friends and family or your fiancé, you don’t have to do this alone.

 

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Lucy Wallace Photography

6.Switch Off

As exciting as planning a wedding is, you also need to ensure you switch of from it once in a while! Holding onto your sanity, your life balance and making sure that your wedding doesn’t become a chore relies on taking time to think about other plans and switching your bridal brain off. If you’re finding it hard to take a break, pamper yourself, book a massage or simply have a long bath and read a book, headspace and perspective is so important.
 

7.Remember Why You Getting Married

Don’t let your wedding day consume you: remember that you are making a commitment to someone to build a happy marriage together and professing your love in front of the people that adore you. Your guests won’t care about the details, or your exact heel height, they will only feel your happiness, so stay calm and enjoy such a joyous time in your life.

 

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Freckle Photography

Wishing you all happy planning and relaxing switched-off moments for 2017 (and don’t forget that we are here to help!).

The Legal Bit!

The Legal Bit – A Helpful Guide for Booking Your Ceremony

The concept of getting married means different things to different people. It could conjure images of a traditional white wedding, a hand fasting, or a quiet elopement. The beauty of the wedding industry at the moment is that being individual and personal within your celebration is encouraged; your day can fit the nature of your relationship in all of its unique glory. At the heart of these exciting choices and decisions lies the important part: the legal bit. We feel it’s of utmost importance to advise happy couples exactly what they need to do to ensure smooth sailing into wedded bliss, and thought an update on the blog (to be enjoyed with a cup of tea) could be just the ticket. 

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In the UK, you need to adhere to the following criteria to get hitched:

• Be over 16 years of age (permission from parents or guardians needed if under 18)
• Free to marry or form a civil partnership (single, divorced, widowed)
• Not closely related

Those boxes ticked, you then need to decide where it is you wish to do the deed. Choose a civil service in a licensed location or if wanting a religious aspect, a church wedding. Both involve giving notice, and require thought as to how you would like your union to be celebrated. Coombe Trenchard offers the best of both worlds; we have 12 separate licenced areas in which you can choose a registrar to legally marry you, but we are also within walking distance of the beautiful Church of St Peter on the neighbouring Lewtrenchard estate. For further information on marrying within a church, see this page on religious ceremonies. 

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Freckle Photography

Most of our couples choose to marry within our home and grounds and we have to stress that the venue cannot be involved with organising the registrar’s attendance or its associated legalities. We strongly advise that once you have booked your date with ourselves, that you contact Devon Registrars to make a provisional booking and pay a £50.00 deposit. This can save disappointment and timeline concerns as the ceremony slots are allocated on a first come, first serve basis and we have known disappointed couples who have had to hold their ceremony much earlier or later that they had planned. You can find out more about the cost involved here.

Once this has been booked with Devon Registrars, you will need to book an appointment to give notice at your local registry office at least 28 days before you intend to tie the knot. Once the year countdown mark has passed, you can attend an appointment and its best to do this as soon as you can. You will need to take proof of your name, age and nationality (your best bet is a passport or birth certificate) and proof of address (driving licence, council tax or recent utility bill). You will each need to pay a £35.00 registry fee to give notice.  If you have been divorced or widowed you will also need to take a decree absolute or a death certificate to prove your freedom to marry once more. The appointment is fairly straightforward and your notice to marry will be publicly displayed for 28 days, after which time the marriage may take place. 

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You will need to pay the final balance of your registrar fees at least 12 weeks before your ceremony and then get to excitedly fill out a preference form, giving information about your readings, music choices, witnesses (you will need to select two) and personalised vows if applicable. (Top Tip: Order a few marriage certificates; you’ll need them for name changes etc.). There can be no religious connotations to a service conducted by a registrar, either within the readings or song choices. 

Then, when the Big Day arrives two registrars will attend Coombe Trenchard. In the half hour before your ceremony they will conduct separate interviews with each of you to confirm you are who you say you are and go over what is about to happen. These lovely people will then have the pleasure of conducting your ceremony, pronouncing you legally wed and handing over your marriage certificates. What a feeling!

Freckle Photography

If the restrictions of a ceremony conducted by a registrar don’t feel suited to the celebration you are planning, we highly recommend the use of Cornish Celebrants to create a bespoke and unique service for you. The legal service can take place at a Registry office on the same or a different day, and you are then free to celebrate within any area of Coombe Trenchard, using your own meaningful words and traditions. 

You can find our more by contacting the Devon Registration Service, browsing the government requirements and printing this handy guide.  

Happy Planning!

Tales from the other side -

 A Coombe Trenchard Bride’s Top Ten Tips:

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Am I basking in the glow, or still completely exhausted? This is the question I am still asking myself one month into married life. It feels the same but different; marriage is comforting presence in an otherwise familiar sea of work, Sunday food shopping and Netflix decisions. Relief is palpable; the18 months of my life spent considering, communicating, dreaming and pinterest-ing were utterly and totally worth it. Possessed of a certain surreal, dreamlike quality, our wedding day went exceptionally well; sunshine, happy smiles and our favourite people investing and involving themselves in a day that meant so much to so many.  With such a momentous build up, it is a strange sensation when the day is actually happening, but also when it has happened.  That constant stream of wedding thoughts in your head cease and allow contemplation and fresh ideas to burst in, the future suddenly opens up like the first green buds in Spring. 

In my new capacity as Wedding Co-ordinator at Coombe Trenchard, I have the honour of assisting and supporting our 2017 Brides and Grooms as they take this same journey. Wonderfully, our venue is incapable of holding the same celebration twice; it is possessed with too many unique spaces, has too much room for interpretation and allows its beauty to be channelled in so many glorious ways.  My excitement at being involved as others create their ‘Best Day Ever’ is huge, my passion and true love of everything that weddings represent ensures that this responsibility feels safe and well placed amongst my positivity and enthusiasm.  

Images by the phenomenally lovely ray of sunshine Emma @ Freckle Photography. 

It seems fitting as I transition from Bride to Wedding Co-ordinator to reflect on my own experience and attempt to support those within the whirlwind and joy of planning their Big Day. So, here are the top ten tips from the new Mrs Colwill:

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• Invest emotionally in Coombe Trenchard. This may seem obvious, but I almost see Coombe Trenchard as a being. Arranging meetings with Sarah, visits with Parents and seeing Facebook and Twitter posts gave me such warm feelings. I do believe this magnificent home is imbedded with its own character and arriving the night before the wedding felt like greeting an old friend. I highly recommended booking tastings, trials and cups of tea in the lead up to your big day; it feels like you are sharing your loved ones and memories with a place that holds a very special place in your heart. 
• Use your time wisely. I remember the see-saw effect of wedding planning well. You go through hugely productive flurries, before focusing on normal life for a short time. Do try to book in a weekend a month or an evening a week to keep up to date though. I felt very organised but still found the fortnight beforehand hugely stressful. You do not want to be handcrafting signage or frantically buying bridesmaid’s presents in grand build up. Make lists, involve friends and family and enjoy the time spent on your day in a measured and thought out way. Discuss the day in detail with Sarah and myself and give due thought to exactly how you want the day to flow and feel from the outset. 

• Know when to stop. This goes for the immediate lead up and the overall planning. We all know that there is no limit to how much money, time and obsessive pinteresting can be spent on your wedding, but you do have to attempt to keep a level of perspective. Make it your dream day, go for what feels right and works for the two of you, but not at a cost to your happiness, stress levels or future financial prospects. I can hold my hands up and say there are a few projects that I didn’t have the strength to complete as the wedding loomed closer and they did not have any bearing on just how incredible the day was. As I ate chocolate with my Bridesmaids the night before, feeling a mixture of excitement and pinch-me nervous bubbles, I let go of the mental to-do list and concerns over stopwatches (!). Keep the balance between creating a magical day and holding onto your sanity!

• Feel present with no pressure. There are no rules as to how you should feel on your wedding day. It is hugely overwhelming, all kinds of wonderful and every person processes and deals with that differently. In the morning I attempted a few calm moments of breathing, then put on some music and danced around the Bridal Suite in a haze of pure, unfiltered excitement. During the speeches though, I became completely overwhelmed and unable to cry, think or form words. Dreams coming true can do that to a person. Ten minutes of walking the grounds with my new husband remedied that and I could continue enjoying every second of a day that whizzes past in smiling faces and squeezy hugs. Vow to stay present, feel the moments and the love coming your way and let the day take you with it. 
• Go on honeymoon straight away. I’m a planner, someone who copes with stress and pressure well and was lucky enough to have a wedding day that exceeded my own expectations, but I was not prepared for the wave of exhaustion that the aftermath brings. It’s happy, elated tiredness that requires you to fall asleep whilst looking at your friends pictures from the day for the thousandth time, but its best done on a beach in a bubble of joy with your new husband. 
• Use Coombe Trenchard’s Spaces to their full potential. So much wow-factor is contained within this magnificent venue. Sarah is incredible at seeing ways to use a space she knows and cares for. We used the minstrel’s gallery for speeches, it was fantastic. These spaces are yours to optimise, celebrate and fill with love: talk to us about how best to use them.

• Stick to your guns and be brave. Others input and expectations can cause issues as you plan a day that carries a lot of weight to it. The road was not without bumps, differences of opinion and lacklustre comments but I’m extraordinarily glad we stuck to our guns and did it our way. Choosing to celebrate your love on your own terms and deciding how much tradition to include is personal and decisions that should be made me you and your partner alone.  
• Understand how much the day means to your family and friends.  I found that our family and friends respected and revelled in our unique take on wedding celebrations. On that day your union and happiness takes precedent in your wonderful loved ones lives. It’s an incredibly special and moving feeling to feel that positivity and unbridled joy being aimed at you and your day. Remember it, treasure it and make time to talk to everyone after the wedding, you’ll be surprised at how much your family will want to discuss such a momentous occasion. 
• Bask in the Bridal Suite of dreams! That bed, that bathroom. A cocoon of grandeur and peace, I still feel emotional just thinking about the time spent within that beautiful part of Coombe Trenchard. 

• Use this new found brain space to plan wonderful things to look forward to once you are wife; after all, this is just the beginning of happy ever after. 

            Emily xx

August blog from Nikki, our 'Real Bride' Wedding Blogger

So it’s now August … how did that happen!! After a fun few months entertaining lots of friends and family who wanted to see our new house and of course doing lots of decorating, it has recently just occurred to me that we really need to get back to thinking about things for the wedding!

Of course all the big stuff is booked so now it’s a case of fine tuning how we want the day to run and look. Making sure we hire anything in to help make the wedding look as we want it to for starters … we’ve had lots of ideas as to how we wanted the various areas of the wedding to look, how we wanted drinks and food to be served and some fun bits and pieces for our guests … so I’ve hired in a few more bits and pieces of furniture from the lovely Ginny at Virginias Vintage Hire.

Vintage vespa scooters from Virginias Vintage hire

Although many brides and grooms don’t look at doing their timeline for the day until much nearer the time we felt it was also right to pencil in a chat with Sarah at Coombe Trenchard to discuss all our plans and check we were on the right track. So late last month we went for another quick visit. So glad we did as the gardens were looking beautiful … and Ant had only ever seen it in the depths of winter so it was lovely for him to see it again too. Sarah, as usual, was incredibly helpful … flagging up things that hadn’t occurred to us and really discussing what our plans would be if there was bad weather. We’d already been working on a timeline for the ideal day but decided we definitely needed a further ‘wet weather’ timeline for all our suppliers so everyone was 100% what was happening.

The last time I wrote a blog post we were just contemplating having our engagement photo shoot with our wedding photographer Clare Kinchin.  We decided, because we love Dartmoor so much, to head off up to Haytor in the end. I was disappointed first thing in the morning as we woke to very stormy skies and miserable weather … but in the end, despite getting a bit windswept and almost losing my hat on several occasions, the weather was perfect as the skies made for the most dramatic pictures. Clare bought along some sheep skulls, to carry on our animal skull motif from our Save the Date Cards, and we just absolutely love the photos!  I would highly recommend an engagement shoot to anyone else getting married – even if it’s just a few weeks before the wedding – as it really helps you relax with your photographer, get used to being posed and allow your photographer to get a feel for how you photograph best as well.

Hopefully in my next update our invitations (currently designing those!) will have gone out and we’ll have started receiving our RSVPs … exciting!

Nikki x

"Run Away With Me........"

Elopement weddings at Coombe Trenchard

To me, elopements instantly conjure the notion of wild, Romeo & Juliet style romance. To share an experience so intimate and so specifically for the two of you, whether in secret or not, has always held an enchanting fascination. These days, 'elopement' is the colloquial term given to weddings of a very small nature, either just the happy couple or a few close friends or family members also in attendance. These ceremonies carry the same legal requirements and standing as a traditional day, just on a much smaller and more intimate scale.

Nestled on the edge of Dartmoor, Coombe Trenchard is a newly discovered Arts & Crafts gem that has been lovingly restored in recent years. Privately owned, full of original features and more than a little sprinkling of mystery, we feel our home is the perfect setting to fulfil your wildest elopement dreams.

In stark contrast to planning a traditional wedding, elopements can be arranged and performed with minimal fuss, stress and cost. Coombe Trenchard prides itself on not conforming to traditional wedding packages and so encourages you to make your day as unique as you are. We have twelve licensed locations dotted around our house and grounds and work closely with a number of trusted suppliers to ensure your celebration runs smoothly, whatever the size. Stay in our luxurious Bridal Suite, complete with roll top bath, and truly relax in your own wedding bubble. We also grow flowers in our cutting garden and bake delicious treats in our country kitchen; ensuring no air miles and the most authentic Devonshire experience to remember for years to come.

With the average cost of a wedding in the UK now at a whopping £20,500, couples are increasingly looking for cheaper, more unique options to personalise their day. You may choose to have an elopement then a laid back party at a different time or simply skip the planning, saving, legwork and debates by heading off to become hitched in the simplest and most secluded way. Age old family pressures can cause tension, along with loved ones expectations that can vary greatly from your own. Guest list dramas can be avoided and decisions can be made to simply suit you and your other half when choosing to strip your wedding back to its purest form: two people becoming committed for life.

Dartmoor is know for its rugged beauty, desolate vistas and ancient woodland. In the summer months plan a lazy picnic, splash in the streams and enjoy total, warm tranquillity. When the nights draw in and autumn raises its beautiful rusty head its time to gather around our fireplace with a glass of mulled wine after a blustery welly walk. Elopements can be easily arranged at any time of the year, especially if you are planning a week day celebration. Coombe Trenchard can provide accommodation for up to nine guests, so if you are bringing a smattering of guests you could enjoy the wonders of this unique part of the world in your own country home. Well behaved canine companions are also welcome, although sadly cannot acts as witnesses!

If this relaxed and cost effective way of getting hitched appeals to you and your partner, here's a handy check list to assist you in planning an elopement.

Coombe Trenchard's Elopement Check List

The Legal Bit – Elopements still have the same legal requirements as larger weddings; you will need to contact your local Registrar's office to book your ceremony and give Notice of Marriage. You can find all of the relevant information by following this link to the governments website.

Photographer – No matter the size of your wedding, you will always want photos of your Big Day to look back on and show loved ones. We have a list of recommended photographers here at Coombe Trenchard that you can peruse by clicking here.

Witnesses – You will need two witnesses to legally marry. If you are inviting a small amount of guests you will need to select two to perform this duty, if it's just you and your partner you may wish to ask the photographer or ourselves at Coombe Trenchard.

Announcement – Decide who you will tell (if anyone) beforehand and how you will be announcing your special news afterwards.

Inspiration – We are long time fans of Love My Dress, a wonderful bridal blog which features beautiful elopements. You may wish to take a peek through their elopement archives for a dash of inspiration.

Contact Coombe Trenchard on 01566 783179 or via sarah@coombetrenchard.co.uk for more information and a chat, we would love to hear your ideas!